Lugar: Anti-surge vote would show disarray

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind, says any congressional resolution against the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq would show the nation's "disarray around the world."

Lugar, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., the chairman of the committee and a declared 2008 presidential candidate, appeared Sunday on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopolous."

Lugar's comments followed similar verbal attacks by other members of the administration, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said a resolution would "embolden the enemy."

Biden disagreed.

"It's not the American (people) and the U.S. Congress who are emboldening the enemy," Biden said. "It's the failed policy of this president, going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely, going to war without enough troops, going to war without enough equipment and, lastly, now sending 17,500 people in the middle of a city of six and a half million people with bulls-eyes on their back, with no plan."

Biden and Lugar agreed President Bush would need congressional authority before a putative invasion of Iran.